Coachella 2013: Local Natives on Performance Jitters and the Ghost of Hologram Tupac

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For Silver Lake group Local Natives, the adage 'You can't come home again' isn't quite true. When we caught up with the feel-good folksy rock band yesterday, amid the chaos of the Coachella music festival, drummer Matt Frazier and singer-keyboardist Kelcey Ayer, dressed in complementary starched button-ups and cuffed trousers, seemed to be right where they belonged.

For the group, who only a few years ago attended Coachella as game spectators, last night's sunset marked only their second performance at the Indio Valley exposition. "If we had a hometown festival, this would be it," said Frazier, who joined the collective of high school pals Ayer, Ryan Hahn, and Taylor Rice in 2008. "We couldn't believe the slot we got, we didn't expect to get something that ideal."

After a day full of high sun reveling, a 7:00 p.m. set time on the Outdoor stage—the same space that later that night hosted acts such as Beach House, Band of Horses, and Tegan and Sara—is still a humbling thing. "I know it's gonna go by in thirty seconds. I'm just gonna try and enjoy it," said Ayers.

Though we chatted with them mere hours before they were slated to go on, the guys, who said that all they need to prep is "a few moments to get Zen," had some choice words for last year's biggest Coachella talking point: hologram Tupac. "I thought he was dead, but apparently he's not. He was on stage!" joked Ayers before adding that the visual effect was "definitely a lot less intimidating" than the real thing. "The future is a strange and scary place sometimes when you see stuff like that!"